THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, DELHI

Lt. Governor Delhi, Sh. Anil Baijal chairs 6th meeting of Task Force on Women Safety at Raj Niwas.
Spl. CP (Women Safety), Sh. Sanjay Baniwal presented a report on Women’s Safety to Hon’ble Lt. Governor Delhi which was prepared by Study Group appointed earlier by the Lt. Governor.
Pr. Secretary (Home), GNCTD to head inter departmental sub-committees to follow up action on recommendations of the St u dy Group : LG

Sh. Anil Baijal, Hon’ble Lt. Governor, Delhi chaired the 6th meeting of the ‘Task Force on Women Safety Issues’ at Raj Niwas. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary, Delhi; Principal Secretary (Home), GNCTD; Commissioner of Police, Delhi; Pr. Secretary (Law), GNCTD; Chairperson, NDMC; Commissioner, East MCD; Commissioner, North MCD; Divisional Commissioner, GNCTD; Secretary (Department of Women & Child Development), GNCTD; Secretary (Social Welfare), GNCTD; Commissioner (Transport), GNCTD; Commissioner (Excise), GNCTD; Director (Delhi Desk), UT Division, MHA, Spl. Commissioner of Police (Women Safety); CEO (DUSIB); Director (FSL), GNCTD.

Spl. CP (Women Safety), Sh. Sanjay Baniwal today presented a report on Women’s Safety to Hon’ble Lt. Governor Delhi which was prepared by the Study Group.

Earlier, Hon’ble Lt. Governor had constituted a study group on 07 th March, 2017 comprising of Spl. CP (Crime against Women Cell), Dr. Nimesh Desai, Director (IHBAS), Prof. Pamela Singla, Delhi School of Social Work, Ms. Monica Kumar, Managing Trustee, Manas Foundation and Sh. O.P. Mishra, Addl. Secretary (Home), GNCTD to study and analyze issues relating to women safety in NCT of Delhi.

The broad Terms and Reference of the Study Group were as under: -

1. To study and analyse the root causes of offences against women in city.
2. To assess the reasons for increasing incidents of involvement of juvenile and school dropouts in sexual offences against women.
3. To suggest ways and means of actively involving community in general including civil society, NGOs and other agencies working in the field of women safety to improve women safety in Delhi.
4. To recommend various measures that need to be taken to educate and create awareness amongst society to prevent deviant behaviour in the context of ensuring women safety.
5. To recommend measures to promote gender friendly environment in the city.
6. To recommend appropriate corrective measures that could be initiated to tackle the issue on short term basis.
7. To recommend medium term and long term measures to substantially reduce crime against women.
8. Any other suggestions to improve safety of women in the city.

This report was submitted after sixteen officials meetings where the committee deliberated upon issues at hand with multi stakeholders like NCW, DCW, NCPCR, UN women and various other NGOs working at grass root level.

It was also informed to Lt. Governor that department wise actionable points have also been identified to achieve the desired goals and the prominent stakeholders are Department of Education, Delhi Police, Transport Department, Social Welfare Department and Law Department. The Study Group not only identified the thrust areas but also pin pointed some out-of-box solutions to ensure safety and security of women.

The Study Group suggested a number of actionable recommendations, which are enclosed in the annexure.

Hon’ble Lt. Governor directed to form Department-wise sub-committees to be headed by Pr. Secretary (Home), GNCTD on specific actions to be taken by the departments/organizations concerned. Hon’ble Lt. Governor also directed for overall supervision and periodical review by the Home Department on all actions to be taken by concerned departments/organizations in a time bound manner.

Annexure

Actionable points regarding Women Safety

Department of Higher Education and Department of Education (Schools)

• Strengthen mechanisms to address sexual harassment on campus.
• Campus safety team to interact with faculty and students regularly.
• Regular safety audits to be conducted and results made public.
• Gender sensitization sessions should be conducted in schools, universities and colleges at regular intervals.
• More hostels for women students should be provided with immediate effect.
• Single sex schools for boys should be phased out.
• Sex education programs that are age and context specific should be devised and reviewed with inputs from experts.
• Counselling services should be strengthened and made a mandatory service on education campuses.
• Regular assessment of curricula to be undertaken to ensure gender sensitivity

Delhi Police

• Modern technology and fast moving vehicles should be made use of to enhance the presence, access and mobility of the police force within Delhi.
• Steps should be taken to appoint victim service workers attached to police stations.
• Special recruitment drives should be undertaken in colleges and universities located in Delhi, with a focus on reaching out to young women recruits as well as to enhance the diversity within the force.
• Request the universities and NGOs to offer MOOC (massive online open courses) courses drawing from sociology, criminology, gender studies, social work public policy and related fields to certify and train personnel from time to time.
• Increase patrolling by women personnel and their presence outside schools and colleges.
• Increase the presence of women police in the resettlement colonies to help in building of confidence among the girls and also boost their attendance in the schools.
• Scale up police patrolling during the winter months as less number of people on streets, poor vision due to foggy conditions etc.
• Specific police patrolling units for locations with collection of homeless populations.
• A single helpline number for all complaints about violence against women should be available country wide. This number should be able to direct the woman to the specific kind of help that she needs – police, legal, counselling etc.
• Advertise police helpline numbers (1091) through regular announcements in public spaces.
• Active Coordination between Police Patrolling Units & local Police Stations with Night Shelters & NGOs worker for homeless populations.
• Clearly identifiable police booths in crowded public places that can be easily spotted and accessed.
• Introduce measures to initiate media coverage and institute special awards for those personnel who have made a significant contribution to addressing violence against women.
• Periodic police meetings with Civil Society groups and NGOs in their respective neighborhood.

Street Lights / Infrastructure / Planning:

Ensure good lighting and no dark spots.
Pavements should be well maintained.

• Provide clean and well maintained public toilets around the city for women to access safely. Ensure efficient waste disposal mechanisms.
• Incorporate women’s voices in urban planning by ensuring that all urban planning and development bodies have women from the communities and neighborhoods of Delhi.
• Remove debris and garbage to make safe and clean public spaces.

Public Transport / Transport Infrastructure

• Immediate response to sexual harassment in buses directly linked to the police control room should be provided.
• CCTV cameras in designated places such as bus stop as two – way communication mechanisms should be installed on an experimental basis to begin with.
• Central data base of all drivers and staff of public transport should be compiled at the earliest and made available easily.
• Infrastructure at metro stations and bus stops and within transport to be made more systematic, user friendly and well monitored.
• After dark, a “between stops” programme should be introduced so that women can request the bus to be stopped at a spot nearest to their destinations, rather than only at the bus stop.
• Hawkers and vendors as ‘eyes on the streets’ should be encouraged while making their presence more organized, hygienic and systematic.

Transport and Infrastructure

• Women’s voice in the transport planning process should be incorporated immediately so as to understand the specific nature of women’s transport needs and concerns.
• Polices to ensure more women’s participation in the transport work force – such as drivers, conductors should be formulated on an urgent basis.

Social Welfare:

• Night shelters for homeless populations especially women should be increased.
• Increase the number of facilities and care homes for women with mental health issues.
• Sensitization Programs to be undertaken, aimed of all stake holders – about the reality of homeless women, especially homeless women with disabilities – both physical and mental.
• Activate & Monitor the management of Night shelters for safety of women.
• Develop issue & monitor “Movement Standards for safety” in all aspects for the Night Shelters.
• Consider reallocating the network of NGOs working with Homeless populations with another NGO, and active collaboration with DSLSA.
• Set up mechanism for reporting and monitoring of instances of violation-physical and/or sexual of women residents of all “Home”/”Social Care” institutions – across sectors – government, private and NGO (Department of Social Welfare and Department of Women and Child Development).

DSLSA & DLSAs:

• Sensitize judicial officers & police personnel about the violation of safety rights of homeless & other in marginalized women.

Ensure Access to Legal Rights.

• Set up a special cell for monitoring the judicial process at different steps.